Meryl Streep and Husband Don Gummer Have Been Separated for More Than 6 Years

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer are separated and living separate lives after 45 years of marriage.

In a statement to Page Six, who first broke the news, a spokesperson for the Oscar-winning actress said Streep and Gummer “have been separated for more than six years.” The spokesperson added, “And while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart.”

The shocking news comes even after Streep was spotted wearing her wedding ring at the 2023 Princesa de Asturias Awards in Spain on Friday. That being said, Streep and Gummer have not been seen together since 2018 at the Academy Awards. ET has reached out to Streep’s rep for comment.

Streep and Gummer marked 45 years of marriage on Sept. 30. They share four children — Henry Wolfe, 43, actress Mamie Gummer, 40, Grace Gummer, 37, and Louisa Jacobson, 30. The estranged couple also share five grandchildren.

According to People, who later confirmed news, Streep and Gummer met thanks to Streep’s brother in 1978. She was mourning, at the time, the death of her boyfriend, actor John Cazale, who died of lung cancer. Just six months after meeting that same year, Streep and Gummer tied the knot. 

The outlet reported that alongside Streep’s rise as a young actress in Hollywood, Gummer, too, earned notoriety as a renowned sculptor. He had studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston before earning an MFA from Yale University, and his work would ultimately be featured in exhibitions around the world.

Streep offered rare insight into her marriage in 2002, when she shared with Vogue the secret to a long marriage.

“Goodwill and willingness to bend — and to shut up every once in a while,” she said.

She added, “There’s no road map on how to raise a family: It’s always an enormous negotiation. But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can’t imagine eschewing one for the other.”

At the 84th Academy Awards in 2012, when she won an Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal in Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, Streep thanked Gummer at the beginning of her acceptance speech for everything he’s given her. 

“First, I’m going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play him out with the music,” she said, “and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives, you’ve given me.”

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